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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26583766">Self-Discovery</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/justtoarguewithyou/pseuds/justtoarguewithyou'>justtoarguewithyou</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tumblr Comfort Mini Fest with SwottyPotter [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Divergence - Post-Hogwarts, Could be read either way, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Slightly Muggle AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:34:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>921</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26583766</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/justtoarguewithyou/pseuds/justtoarguewithyou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This work will connect with the next one.<br/>This is a story about Sirius coming into his inheritance and realizing what he wants more than anything in the world.<br/>"Self-Discovery" is the first part, and "Recovery" is the second part.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sirius Black/Remus Lupin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tumblr Comfort Mini Fest with SwottyPotter [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933714</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Self-Discovery</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sirius Black is 18 years old. He will soon be 19. Three weeks before his birthday, he receives notification that his presence is requested at a London solicitor’s office.</p><p>There he learns he is the sole beneficiary of his Uncle Alphard’s estate.</p><p>Alphard.</p><p>Sirius hadn’t seen him since the summer, when he invited him to spend the holidays with him in his London flat. Alphard had known Sirius couldn’t go home, as his father, Orion, had already disowned him legally. His sister, Walberga, hadn’t even argued with her husband. Just hardened her heart a little more, and pretended she only had one son. Alphard never told Sirius that Walberga refused to say Sirius’s name during his last visit to their home. It had been highly unpleasant.</p><p>When Alphard came home that night, he contacted his solicitor. This particular branch of the Black family tree hadn’t been poor by any means. Earlier that day, Sirius wondered if Alphard’s holdings weren’t larger than his own father’s. After seeing the lawyer, and signing all the paperwork, Sirius found himself possessor of a flat in the heart of London, another in Paris, Berlin and Hong Kong.</p><p>Sirius is, for lack of a better term, loaded.</p><p>Sirius walks into Alphard’s flat—his flat—and finds his uncle’s best bottle of whiskey. Not the Ogden’s that he’d kept for company, but the Old Midleton, which is older than Sirius himself.</p><p>Sirius pours himself a glass and sits on his uncle’s leather couch, watching the firelight, and drinking his incredibly fine whiskey.</p><p>He hasn’t told James, or Peter, the news. He hasn’t even told Remus; just asked Remus to meet him here. Remus will arrive soon. Sirius still isn’t sure what he will say.</p><p>Sirius sits back, closing his eyes, and thinking about how much he’d loved his uncle, and how much his uncle had, obviously, loved him.</p><p>It occurs to Sirius that he can do anything he wants, have anything he wants: work, not work. Travel. Buy a Les Paul guitar and really learn to play. He entertains the notion of burning his parents’ house down and buying his way out of jailtime. He entertains all manner of potential occupation while he drinks his extremely expensive, unbelievably fine whiskey.</p><p>But Sirius finds he doesn’t want to buy a yacht, or go to night clubs and waste his money on any amount of illicit substances. He doesn’t even want to play sold-out stadiums with the Rolling Stones. Revenge seems pointless—for all of his innate base, Black instincts, he doesn’t want it. </p><p>Sirius doesn’t even really want the rest of this whiskey. He puts it down on the small table attributed to Pierre Gole.</p><p>Sirius starts to cry, as he realizes what he truly wants, what he has always wanted, will always want: a relationship with his brother.</p><p>For the past two years, he has only seen Regulus in the halls of their boarding school. Sirius had whispered to him in French, so they wouldn’t be understood by their classmates. Regulus had always given him tentative updates on their parents, and in the beginning, had begged Sirius to come home. Regulus begged less as time went on, and seemed more withdrawn.</p><p>Sirius realizes that he could now support his brother, if Regulus wants him to, will let him. Neither of them has to rely on their parents anymore. Regulus could live with him here.</p><p>There came a soft knock at the door. Remus stands in the porchlight. Sirius doesn’t bother to dry his eyes. He picks up his whiskey and goes to open the door. Remus looks up to see Sirius’s red-rimmed eyes, and the tears streaming down his face, and silently steps into the house. Sirius swings the door shut behind him.</p><p>Remus immediately envelopes Sirius in a tight hug, and rubs Sirius’s back gently.</p><p>“I’m so sorry, Sirius,” Remus whispers. Remus kisses the hinge of Sirius’s jaw, as Sirius leans into Remus’s tall frame.</p><p>“Drink this,” Sirius says, holding up the heavy Waterford tumbler.</p><p>Remus drinks it in one, and sets the glass down on a small cabinet attributed to Andre-Charles Boulle. “Christ, that’s delicious.”</p><p>Sirius kisses a drop off Remus’s lips, and looks into Remus’s eyes.</p><p>“I have so little left,” Sirius says, crying again. “I mean, Alphard left me everything, but it doesn’t matter if I don’t have any family left.”</p><p>Remus closes his eyes, and listens, holding Sirius even closer. Remus knows Sirius means his blood, and not his chosen family.</p><p>“I want Reg. And I want you,” Sirius says, his voice breaking. “That’s all I want.”</p><p>“I’m yours already,” Remus says into Sirius’s hair. “Do you want to try to see Reg tonight? We can go throw rocks at his window. Only this time, make sure you remember which window is his.”</p><p>Sirius lets out a watery laugh, remembering how they’d tried over the summer to see Regulus. They’d woken up a neighbor instead, and fled, laughing, as Regulus’s light came on.</p><p>“Will you go with me?” Sirius asks, knowing Remus will say yes, but he needs to hear it anyway.</p><p>“Anywhere,” Remus answers.</p><p>Sirius presses a kiss to Remus’s neck, and picks up the keys to Alphard’s—now his— 1964 Aston Martin DB5 Vantage. Regulus had always loved this car. He can have it, for all Sirius cares, just so long as he will be his brother again.</p><p>“Let’s go,” Sirius says, taking a deep breath.</p><p>Remus squeezes his hand. “It’ll be okay.”</p><p>“Liberté, ou la mort!” Sirius says, and smiles.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am on <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/justtoarguewithyou">Tumblr</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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